THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK
At t h e r e c e n t MCA meeting, Maurice F. Crass, Jr. (left) was continued as secretary of the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, and J. W . McLauglin was re-elected treasurer
C&EN
REPORTS:
M a n u f a c t u r i n g Chemists' Association Chemical Manufacturers Association
and
Synthetic
Organic
industry Hears Chemicals Are "Public Mystery No. 1" MCA votes relations program
to open throttle further on
public
W a r d and Munson to h e a d association for 1952-53 W H I T E S U L P H U R SPRINGS, W . VA.— Despite opinions t h a t chemicals offer a complex a n d difficult subject to "sell" t o the American people, the industry, through the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, decided a t its annual meeting here on June 23 t o go ahead full steam with its public relations program. An opinion survey arranged some time ago by t h e association's public relations committee may have figured in this decision. It was a sample survey and t h e sample r e a c h e d b u t a few hundred persons; still it b r o u g h t out some disquieting observations on t h e chemical industry b y those interviewed, even though it scored high ( 8 2 % ) in t h e general favorable opinion of the m a n on t h e street. Public misunderstanding of our industry, even hostility, is only too apparent, said D u Pont's Harold Brayman, chairman of the MCA public relations advisory committee. T h e study h a d revealed that 5 3 % of persons interviewed considered chemicals a dangerous and unhealthy business t o work in. But its further revelation that 6 7 % apparently felt there was 2802
not e n o u g h competition in chemicals was, to M r . Brayman, dangerous and unhealthy to t h e industry. A q u i e t - m a n n e r e d and. well-spoken official of t h e D u Pont Co., William H. W a r d , was elected chairman of the MCA board of directors, succeeding Charles S. M u n son, b o a r d chairman of Air Reduction Co. Mr. Munson in turn was named president of t h e association succeeding George W. Merck. H. W . " B u d " Fisher, Standard Oil of N e w Jersey, was elected vice chairman.
The Week's Events New Era Dawns for Literature Searching as IBM Unveils Mechanized System Synthetic Fiber Capacity to Increase to 400 Million Pounds Pauling Says Structure o f One Protein Should Be Known in Five Years Plastics Flow Is a Rate Process, According to Eyring Steroid Obtained from Yucca Leaf Powder
2806 2810 2813 2815 2822
C H E M I C A L
John McKeen a n d W. S. Richardson are the n e w vice presidents of MCA for 1952— 5 3 . Mr. McKeen is president of Chas. Pfizer & Co., antibiotic and fine chemical manufacturers, and Mr. Richardson is vice president of T h e B. F . Goodrich Co. T h e association continued Maurice F . Crass, Jr., Washington, as secretary, and reelected J. W . McLaughlin of Union Carb i d e as treasurer. T h e MCA, as h a s been t h e custom tor m a n y years, staged its meeting here to coincide with the outing a n d governors' conference of t h e Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Association. President Ambrose R. Chantier of the latter group addressed the joint meeting on chemical tariff reductions and the proposed change in selling price provision for such imports. T h e gathering also witnessed the presentation of the first L a m m o t du Pont Awards for Safety, two handsome bronze plaques, to the Atlas Powder Co., Wilmington, once p a r t of D u P o n t and now a keen rival; and to Ohio-Apex, Inc., one of t h e divisions of t h e Food Machinery and Chemical Corp. T o Mr. Merck, w h o presided, these awards were representative of a n d in keeping with the sincere efforts expended by L a m m o t d u Pont on t h e side of plant safety. I n this, h e said, L a m m o t was following in the footsteps of the du Ponts who h a d preceded him. T h e founder of the company, E . I. d u P o n t d e Nemours, in fact, h a d introduced into t h e powder industry the u n i q u e idea of small manufacturing units spaced sufficiently apart so that an explosion in o n e would not involve all. T h e MCA, M r . Merck said, was glad to publicize these awards. Public Education P r o g r a m . In discussing the b u d g e t to cover the public relations program (which members adopted without a dissenting vote) Mr. Merck emphasized that t h e need was for a sound program of public education. " W e have an interesting story t o tell," h e said, "and w e must overcome public feeling regarding the chemical industry, such as the idea that it merely smells and explodes." Public relations, t h e retiring president continued, is a matter t h a t cannot b e left just to men at t h e t o p o r even to committees. Efforts in its behalf must also come from member companies and their staffs. H e left no doubt i n anyone's mind that MCA was not just wading in the public relations pool. It w a s right out in the deep and swimming h a r d . Much remained to be done, but there were gains in t h e shape of better under-'* standing, such as the c h a n g e d attitude of academic groups which formerly would have n o part or parcel w i t h commercial interests. He placed an exclamation point A N D
E N G I N E E R I N G
N E W S
t o this by introducing a representative to t b e meeting from the National Academy of Sciences. In carrying out its program t h e associa tion h a d engaged the N e w York public re lations firm of Hill a n d Knowlton; had p l a c e d its Robert L. Taylor in that firm as vice president; h a d enlarged its Washing t o n office. This is a PR venture that is de s i g n e d to reach a goal and achieve a p u r p o s e ; still, it must b e administered with a u t h o r i t y . It is u n d e r t h e active direction of t h e association's officers. D i l m a n M. K. Smith, w h o discussed and p r e s e n t e d graphs of t h e public opinion s u r v e y ; John W. Hill of Hill and Knowl t o n , a n d Mr. Brayman, comprised a public relations panel which took up various p h a s e s of t h e program. N a t i o n a l S u r v e y . Smith called the sur v e y a pilot study of public opinion, and s a i d t h a t it was based on 352 personal interviews conducted in respondents* h o m e s . It w a s a small b u t nevertheless a n a t i o n w i d e cross-section survey. Among t h o s e questioned were city dwellers, f a r m e r s , m e n a n d women, rich a n d poor. V e r y few w e r e found to b e irreconcilably hostile to t h e chemical industry, and the s p e a k e r thought that t h e industry had a c l e a r field for building favorable publicopinion. Some results: In w h a t ways d o you think favorably of t h e chemical industry? Progressive—re s e a r c h a n d n e w developments, 2 8 % ; raises s t a n d a r d of living, 2 4 % ; contributions to medicine, 9 % . W h i c h industry does most to develop n e w a n d better products? Airplane manu facture, 1 8 % ; aluminum, 8 % ; automobile, 1 3 % ; chemicals, 3 8 % . D o you feel that the things turned out b y t h e chemical industry affect your daily living a lot, m e d i u m amount, or not very m u c h ? 6 1 % replied "a lot;" 2 3 % a me d i u m a m o u n t ; 1 2 % not very much. The p r o d u c t s t h e y h a d in mind, Smith said, * w e r e synthetic fibers, plastics, and medi c a l products. A n d a preponderance of those ques t i o n e d , 7 8 % felt that t h e shift of emphasis o n natural products to chemical products w a s a good thing. The main reasons given w e r e conservation of natural resources, b e t t e r a n d c h e a p e r chemical products. A n o t h e r strong point in favor of the industry, Mr. Smith continued, is that c h e m i s t r y appeals to the public as a career. A b o u t 7 4 % indicated they would advise a y o u n g person to enter some line of chemistry, while 7 % t h o u g h t it would be a poor idea. But the study brought out t h e fact that few persons know very much a b o u t t h e chemical industry. Some 3 1 % s a i d t h e y k n e w most about the automobile i n d u s t r y ; steel, 1 2 % ; airplane, 9 % ; and chemicals, 4 % . S a f e t y . T h e survey also revealed that t h e average person has a poor concept of t h e chemical industry's safety measures. A b o u t 5 3 % singled out the industry as t h e m o s t dangerous a n d unhealthy in w h i c h to work out of seven fields. The o t h e r six were steel, oil, rubber, aluminum, V O L U M E
3 0,
NO.
27
The C o v e r .
Munson and W a r d Fill Key Positions of the M C A ' - p w o of the chemical industry's top -*· executives were selected to fill t h e key positions in the Manufacturing Chemists' Association at its annual meeting last month in W h i t e Sulphur Springs. William II. W a r d , a vice president and director of the Du Pont Co., was elected chairman of the asso ciation's board. Charles S. Munson, long active in the MCA and chairman of Air Reduction Co., was made presi dent of t h e association. William Hilles W a r d Mr. Ward, a chemist by training, has been connected with D u Pont since 1915, the year h e graduated from Swarthmore College. His initial duties were those of chemist at the D u Pont Eastern Lahoratory at Gibbstown, N. J. In 1923 h e was called to the company's headquarters in Wilmington, Del., to take the post of assistant t o the chemical director of the explosives department. T h e w a r made many demands upon Du Pont, and some of the most im portant came under Mr. Ward's super vision in the explosives department. He had been made assistant general manager of that department in 1935, and was appointed its general manager in 1944. Important military contracts had been undertaken by Du Pont for the Army, and the explosives depart ment under Ward's direction met these requirements. H e subsequently became a vice presi dent of D u Pont, member of the board, and m e m b e r of its executive committee. In these responsible posts he is adviser on personnel, industrial relations, and salaries. William Hilles W a r d was born Dec 27, 1892, in Barnesville, Ohio, and at tended the public schools there. H e graduated from Swarthmore with a B.A. degree in chemistry, and is not so sure of the circumstances which got him started in that science. It may have been the tile industries in Zanesville, Ohio, w h e r e he spent a year in between high school a n d college, and which brought h i m into contact with a Cerman chemist employed b y one of the companies there. Swarthmore, Pa., is more than alma mater to t h e MCA executive. He has lived there most of t h e time, in fact, and commutes daily between that point and Wilmington. H e is a member of t h e board of managers of the college. I n 1920 Mr. W a r d was married to Sophie Helene Hodges. The W a r d s have one daughter, Mrs. Robert Cox.
JULY
7,
1952
Charles Sherwood
Munson
T h e gifted and energetic executive who has been eleeted president of the Manufacturing Ctiemists' Association has sought for yeasrs to make the MCA an active and dynamic force in the chemical world. ΝΊΓ. Munson's concept of the association, s h a r e d by George W . Merck a n d o t h e r s , is that it should "sell" the chemical industry t o the p u b lic, dispel the notion t h a t it is a nui sance or a danger, publicize its activi ties, and gain for it the recognition it deserves as a vital force in peace or war. T h e idea w a s entertained for many years that the association should play a passive role, even in t h e face of un founded criticism, and keep its com mittee deliberations quiet on such issues as air a n d stream pollution, tariff pro tection, a n d legislation affecting the in dustry. Even a simall survey taken re cently (see report of MCA meeting on this p a g e ) showed how damaging t h a t policy has been i n the public mind. Hence, t h e all-out drive for publicity for industry w h i c l i is supported by Mr. Munson a n d His associates in the MCA. T h e n e w association president is equally well k n o w n in the chemical industry as the mart who is b o a r d chair man of t w o prominent companies, Air Reduction Co. a n d U. S. Industrial Chemicals now a (division of National Distillers Products C o r p . It culminates a career in the chemical business which began in 1912 witH a clerkship in t h e credit department o f the old Amoskeag Mfg. Co., following graduation that same year from Yale University. One invariably associates Mr. Mun son and Air Reduction with industrial gases, and his next connection, Cuban Air Products Co., was the company which first brought: him into contact with that branch o f chemical manu facture. Between 1917 and 1919 he rose from treasurer t o president. He re mained as president of Cuban Air Products a s late as 1942, after it h a d become a unit of Air Reduction. When h e yielded the presidency of C u b a n Air Products in 1942 t o become its board chairman, he was president of National C a r b i d e as well as presi dent of Air Reduction and president of U. S. Industrial Cliemicals. In 1948 Munson assumed t h e post of executive committee chairman, of Air Reduction, and in 1949 became its board chairman. I n 1943 h e was elected t o head up t h e executive committee of U . S. I.
2803
THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK airplane, and automobile manufacture. The reasons: danger of explosions, fumes, and gases. Actually, MCA members are establishing new high levels for safety, Mr. Munson said in commenting upon the safety awards. "The chemical industry is a safe place to work," he stated. "For 1950 the average accident frequency rate for MCA reporting companies was 4.83 compared to 14.70 for all United States industry. For the first quarter of 1952, MCA companies scored a further improvement with a rate of 4.03. The association's president-elect, in his report as retiring board chairman, restated his concept of the role which the MCA should play as spokesman for the "great and dynamic industry we represent." "It is my firm belief," he said, "that the chemical industry is the number one industry of the United States. We are number one in dollar volume and in importance to die country. We are the basic industry on which all other basic industry depends. Without chemicals there cannot be a ton of steel, a gallon of petroleum, or a pound of aluminum—nor can there be an adequate supply of food, clothing, or housing for the American people and for the people of other nations . . . whose economies are interdependent with our own." Hence, he felt, we should not hide our light under a bushel, and he was glad t o report that under the leadership of Mr. Merck and his associates a very substantial start had been made in telling their story during the past year. On the other hand, he said, "we should not sprain our wrists by patting ourselves on the back." "In short, I think we should pursue a middle course between the Scylla of public ignorance of our industry, and the CharyTbdis of so much self-praise that we become a bright and shining target for those who would put the shackles of socialism and nationalism on American Industry." The steel and petroleum strikes were partial examples. Transition in MCA. Turning to more specific events, the first of importance was an intangible. That was the basic transition of the association in ^ $ 79 years from an internal role, addressed to the industry itself, to a new and more articulate role as spokesman for the chemical industry. He referred to the establishment of the Defense Mobilization Committee under William Rand, and said that with the easing of the control situation towards the end of the fiscal year, the mobilization problems facing them had lessened. The association will continue to place primary reliance on functional committees, such as trie one for pollution abatement, with sufficient flexibility for a small number of special or product committees. The continued successful functioning of the plastics committee is specifically safeguarded. The association has been registered under the Federal lobbying act, and no 2804
At a joint session of MCA and SOCMA George W. Merck (center) presented the first Lammot du Pont awards for safety to Isaac Fogg for Atlas Powder Co. and Bernard H. Jacobson for Ohio-Apex stigma attaches to such registration, he said. It was merely frank avowal of their legitimate interest in "supporting good legislation and our equally great interest in opposing harmful and unworkable legislation." They had sponsored important symposia during the year on air pollution, chemicals in foods, and had gone ahead with plans for further sessions of this type. Annual report of the MCA board of directors pointed out that American industry is producing military end products at a rate five times greater than in the quarter following Korea. Production of military equipment is approaching the revised $4 billion per month delivery goal set by the mobilization planners for January, 1953. Chemical Production Advances. The record was even more impressive in the case of chemicals. Chemical production is now over 3Va times the rate of 1940 in terms of dollar volume. Pointing to the estimate that the industry's average growth has been 10% per year during the past quarter century, against 3 % for all industry, the MCA report said that technological developments and countless new products had extended our frontiers into new fields. The report also saw clouds on the horizon which might lessen this growth. The threat of socialization of industry in this country was becoming increasingly real, it said. The directors assailed what they termed the "high-handed policies of the executive branch of the Government in the interpretation of its powers under the Constitution and existing statutes." "Equally apparent," the report continued, "are the fiscal policies of the Government which pose a serious threat to our way of life. In the chemical industry the major portion of venture capital for developing and commercializing new products and processes is provided by the companies themselves. These companies largely utilize for these purposes retained earnings and other internal sources of capital. "Despite the fact that the chemical inCHEMICAL
dustry's sales during 1951 increased almost 2 5 % over the previous year, profits before taxes were in many cases lower than the preceding year. It is of particular concern, however, to note that profits after taxes approximated 20% lower than in 1950, in spite of the operating economies occasioned by greater production. This resulted from substantially increased taxes which took approximately 70% of the total income during the year. "It is clear that our industry will not be able to maintain its traditional practice of financing new plants and production facilities out of earnings of cash reserves if this condition maintains. The excess profits tax imposes a specific penalty on growth and efficiency by taking away most of the earnings from new operations and from technological improvements." Public Relations Program Recommendation for a long-range industry public relations program for the Manufacturing Chemists' Association, developed by a subcommittee of the MCA public relations advisory committee and Hill and Knowlton, was issued in connection with the meeting. There are "overtones of black magic in the public's impression of the chemical industry," said this report, "and what people do not understand, they are inclined to fear." "Even when the miracles of the test tube are benign, this lack of understanding makes the chemical industry the easy prey of demagogues, as illustrated by experiences during the past two years." A PR program designed for mass appeal would be too costly to be practical, the committee said, hence the effort must be directed toward certain special public groups, chiefly what it termed the "opinion leader group." In it are editors and commentators, educators, clergymen, government officials, librarians, and members of professional civic organizations. Their attention and understanding is to be won through the following long-range program: 1. The importance of the chemical industry in everyday life and in improving the standards of living. 2. Efforts the industry is making to increase the protection of the public in matters of defense, health, and use of natural resources. 3. Economic conditions under which the industry can best thrive and increase its contributions to the public welfare. Among the specific activities would be an expanded information service for editors and others; popular facts books somewhat similar to Automobile Facts and Figures; a speakers' bureau which would widen this activity by member companies; an industry-education cooperation program explaining the economic and social significance of the chemical industry at the impressionable youth level; and lastly, service to the association itself, largely publicity and assistance in program arrangements, by Hill and Knowlton. AND
ENGINEERING
NEWS
